This matter is before the Court on the status report of the plaintiff, Prism Technologies, L.L.C. ("Prism") (Filing No. 159) regarding an ongoing discovery dispute between the parties. In its motion, Prism requested that the Court grant its prayer for relief in its earlier motion to compel (Filing No. 134), which the Court denied without prejudice (Filing No. 150). The defendant, United States Cellular Corporation ("U.S. Cellular") has responded to the status report (Filing No. 164). The Court finds that the status report should be granted in part and denied in part.

I. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 26(b) and 37(a).

"Mutual knowledge of all the relevant facts gathered by both parties is essential to proper litigation." Hickman v. Taylor, 329 U.S. 495, 507 (1947). Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b) allows for broad discovery of "any nonprivileged matter that is relevant to any party's claim or defense...." Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)(1). Relevance during discovery is not measured by the Federal Rules of Evidence: "Relevant information need not be admissible at the trial if the discovery appears reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence." Id. Relevance is to be broadly construed for discovery issues and encompasses "any matter that bears on, or that reasonably could lead to other matter that could bear on, any issue that is or may be in the case." Oppenheimer Fund, Inc. v. Sanders, 437 U.S. 340, 351 (1978).

However, the proponent of discovery must make "[s]ome threshold showing of relevance... before parties are required to open wide the doors of discovery and to produce a variety of information which does not reasonably bear upon the issues in the case." Hofer v. Mack Trucks, Inc., 981 F.2d 377, 380 (8th Cir. 1992). "Determinations of relevance in discovery rulings are left to the sound discretion of the trial court...." Hayden v. Bracy, 744 F.2d 1338, 1342 (8th Cir. 1984).

In the event of noncompliance with a discovery request for relevant information, Rule 37(a) provides, "[A] party may move for an order compelling disclosure or discovery." Fed.R.Civ.P. 37(a)(1). "The party resisting production bears the burden of establishing lack of relevancy or undue burden." Prism Tech., L.L.C. v. Adobe Sys. Inc., 284 F.R.D. 448, 449 (D. Neb. 2012).

II. Prism's Motion to Compel.

Prism seeks to compel U.S. Cellular to respond to its requests for production ("RFP") for the following various discovery items:

According to U.S. Cellular, Prism's motion to compel may be viewed in four groups: (1) Documents not contemplated during their meet and confer; (2) "Third party network provider" documents; (3) Net neutrality documents; and (4) Roaming agreements (Filing No. 164). In its first category, U.S. Cellular claims that Prism dropped its requested discovery from its original motion to compel because it did not discuss those documents during this Court's mandated meet and confer. Without citation to case law or statute, U.S. Cellular claimed that any relief that the Court may grant is improper. Id. at 2.

In regard to "third party network provider" documents, U.S. Cellular claims the term is too vague to produce discovery.

In regard to Prism's request for net neutrality[1] documents, U.S. Cellular first objected on the grounds of relevance. However, once Prism defined the term, U.S. Cellular replied that it did not possess documents concerning its compliance or noncompliance with net neutrality (Filing No. 159-1, at 3). U.S. Cellular maintains this assertion in its responsive status report (Filing No. 164, at 3).

In regard to Prism's request for roaming agreements, U.S. Cellular states it is "in the process of completing the steps required to give the parties to those agreements notice and an opportunity to seek a protective order if they so desire" (Filing No. 159-1, at 5; Filing 164, at 3-4.). U.S. Cellular assured the Court ...

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